42 A scarlet horseman gallops across the steppes. His sabre reaches to the baffled sun, which waits for him, spread over a bay bathed in a tepid silence. II Weapons buried in the thickest part of the forest mark the source of a great river. A wounded warrior points out the spot, insistently. His hand stretches to the desert and his feet are resting on an elegant city with white, sunlit squares. III The Great Chief offers the pipe of peace to a buffalo hunter whose distracted gaze falls on the colored tents and the acrid smoke from the bonfires. A crow flaps close on wings of woe. ter. She could feel him dreaming, his big body pressed against her, his mouth wet at the back of her neck, and she felt that if she slipped into sleep she would find herself in his dream: something about a beach, hot sand, hot sun, water and sky, and birds clamoring in trees. After a while she felt the pressure of his body relax, and she knew he was awake. "Did you have a good sleep r" she asked. He answered by pulling her closer. She could feel sweat along her back where his stomach had rested, sweat their bodies had created together. She leaned out of the bed and turned down the space heater. She watched its coils fade from orange to red, heard its ping ping ping, and felt a sudden tremor of happiness, of the world stretching out all around her, curved and occurring. "I'm all hot," she said. He wasn't talking yet. She tried to turn toward him but he pressed himself harder against her. He wrapped his arms around her, and moved against her, slowly. THE MAP IV Fruits with an unpleasant metallic taste are signs of the Doleful Islands. A ship is gently sinking and the sailors are pulling for a beach where a wild boar is burying its prey. The sand is blinding to the gods. V Cold air passes over the hard shells of the crustaceans. A great shriek splits the sky with its frozen lightning flash of rage. Like a gray carpet, they descend, night and terror. VI The runaway carriage bolts and a woman screams for help, her clothing in disorder, her hair loose in the wind. The driver downs a huge flagon of cider, leaning unconcerned against a marble torso. Hedgehogs mark the road with their long nocturnal spines. . . "I'm sweating," she said. He kissed her back, and licked her spine. His tongue felt cool. She tried again to turn, and this time he let her. The blankets slipped away from her and he tried to cover her again, but she said, "No. I'm hot." Even the windows were sweating. Topsy got out of bed and opened one. She turned the heater off. She stood looking out, feeling the cold air on her face. She watched the cornstalks in the field rearrange themselves as some- thing-a dogr-walked through them. Darkness was spilling into the sky from some rip near the horizon. "Come back to bed, " Walter said. "It's late," she said. "You should go. " "Come back," he said. "I have time." "Where are you todayr" she asked. / " .-':: ..,;; ? - - ____'c ô /// VII A seaplane flies over the jungle. There below the missionaries wave as they prepare for the wedding of the chief. A whiff of cinnamon spreads through the atmosphere and on, to lose itself in the fading drone of the plane. VIII A city walled in with vast stones conceals the stiffened corpse of the queen and the sweet, decaying flesh of her last folly, an ice-cream seller, his hair combed like a schoolgirl's. IX Venus emerges from the skimpy crest of a palm. In her right hand she holds the fruit of a banana with the peeled skin hanging down like a soft, golden canopy. Summer arrives and a fisherman exchanges a pound of clams for a fencing mask. -ALVARO MUTIS ( Translated, from the Spanish, by Alastair Reid.) "What's your excuse for not being at workr" "You," he said. "Come here. Please. " "Is that what you told Gladysr" Gladys was Walter's secretary. "Yes," said Walter. "And I told Virginia I wouldn't be home for dinner because I'd be in bed with you." "What did Virginia sayr" Walter didn't answer. Topsy turned away from the window. He was look- ing at the ceiling. "What would Vir- ginia think of thatr" she asked. "She wouldn't like it," he said. He looked at her. "Virginia . . . loves me." "Do you love herr" "In a way," he said. "In our way, yes." "What way is thatr" "It's hard to describe," he said. She came and sat on the bed. "I'm cold," he said She got up and closed the window. The thing was a dog-she saw it emerge from the corn and run through